Energizing Leisure
Replace "Doom Scrolling" with "Joy Building"
I've talked a lot about the energy flywheel1 concept, which fundamentally is about intentionally managing your energy givers and the energy takers to propel you to greater heights. Two earlier points that I want to repeat here are "never waste energy" and "be the architect of your day."
Up until this point, I have focused on managing your energy flywheel at work. But in reality, your energy flywheel isn't sitting on your office desk. You don't leave it at the end of your workday and return to it the next morning. When you have a bad day in the office, does it not impact the evening at home? When you have a bad weekend, does it not impact the start of your work week?
You have one energy flywheel for your whole day, for your whole life, for your whole self2. And there are energy givers and energy takers throughout your whole day. Just as you optimize and intentionally organize your work energy givers and takers, there is value and momentum to be had by similarly giving attention to how your energy givers and takers are organized outside of work.
"Are you not entertained?"
The more of Neil Postman's work I read, the more I want to read. Cal Newport turned me on to Neil, and after finishing "Technopoly", I immediately put "Amusing Ourselves to Death" in my reading queue. And after finishing that, I now have "Teaching As a Conserving Activity" in my queue.
Neil wrote "Amusing Ourselves to Death"3 in 1985. And there he focused on the brain rot that has come from television being the core medium of society (vs. speaking and writing). His son Andrew added a forward to this book 20 years later, where he called out how much more technology has been added to mix. "The world of 1985, a world yet to be infiltrated by the internet, cell phones, PDAs, cable channels by the hundreds, DVDs, call-waiting, caller ID, blogs, flat-screens, HDTV, and iPods." And now, another 20 years later, we can add to that "social media, smart phones, and AI." This book is relevant 40 years later because what it talks about is the general trend of us being "infatuated and then seduced" by technology, with the key question being "does it free us or imprison us?"
If we could have a conversation with a 1985 Neil Postman, we would tell him, "television was, in fact, just the tip of the iceberg." He wouldn't be surprised. The beauty of Postman's delivery came in his contrasting of two possible futures: George Orwell's future in "1984" and Aldous Huxley's future in "Brave New World". As you read through Neil's framing, ask yourself which future we are in:
"Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think."
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one."
"Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism."
"Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance."
"Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture."
"As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny 'failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.'"
"In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure."
"In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us."
Break this cycle for yourself. Don't let the technology tell you how to waste your leisure time. Invest your leisure time.
Getting in the Right Mindset
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his zen-like book Flow4, highlights the potential of your leisure time. "Free time, on the other hand, is unstructured, and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed. Hobbies that demand skill, habits that set goals and limits, personal interests, and especially inner discipline help to make leisure what it is supposed to be -- a chance for re-creation." I especially love his hyphenation of "recreation" to remind us of the word's true meaning.
There is a "creator vs. consumer" challenge in Mihaly's words. And then, very aligned with Postman's perspective, Mihaly continues. "Instead of using our physical and mental resources to experience flow, most of us spend many hours each week watching celebrated athletes playing in enormous stadiums. Instead of making music, we listen to platinum records cut by millionaire musicians. Instead of making art, we go to admire paintings that brought in the highest bids at the latest auction. We do not run risks acting on our beliefs, but occupy hours each day watching actors who pretend to have adventures, engaged in mock-meaningful action." "Mass leisure, mass culture … are parasites of the mind."
Mihaly offers the alternative of being intentional in the structuring of both work time and free time. "People who learn to enjoy their work, who do not waste their free time, end up feeling that their lives as a whole have become much more worthwhile."
Making The Time
80 years before Mihaly published Flow, Arnold Bennett5 published "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day"6. And it's just as timeless as both Neil's and Mihaly's work. Arnold's central message is that there is far too much autopilot in our leisurely lives, resulting in far too little profound growth. "You have to live on this 24 hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that."
Because his book is a "How To", Arnold provides his recipe for taking control. Here's his math. Split your work day into thirds: one third for work, one third for leisure, and one third for sleep. Take that one third for life, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and you have 40 hours, or, because I prefer to highlight the value of minutes7, 2,400 minutes. Devote 90 minutes 3 times a week to the "cultivation of the mind." That works out to just 11% of your leisure time. And note that the weekend is completely excluded from this math.
Don't know where you'll find 270 minutes? This is where Postman's and Mihaly's words come in. Look at the usage tracking of your phone, tablet, and computer. If this tracking isn't built into your devices, then install StayFree8 and immediately start to raise your awareness. Where are you stuck in consumption mode? Where are you passively watching vs. actively re-creating? Where are you being fooled that what you think is an energy giver is actually an energy taker?
You don't need to become an ascetic and shed all of your technology today … or ever, for that matter. Arnold makes it approachable. Just cull it. Take 11% of your leisure time and invest it intentionally. 270 minutes a week of energy giving leisure activity. Do this for three straight weeks, and I guarantee you'll feel your energy flywheel revving up. And that acceleration will make you hungry for more. Then maybe you find 30 more minutes. Then 60 more.
Propel yourself with quality leisure time.
Footnotes
Intro of You Are A Grand Synthesis
Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman (Goodreads) - and a perfect example of the technology we're competing with. Go to this page, and then ad pops up at the top. Good luck staying focused on this good read. 🙂🙁 This is exactly why I am following the footnote approach to all of my references rather than embedding them as inline links. I want the reading experience of my posts to be completely free of ads.
First referenced in Raising Your Own Awareness